U.S. Senate candidate Oberweis favors path to citizenship for children

Thursday

Feb 27, 2014 at 4:35 PMFeb 27, 2014 at 9:48 PM

By Bernard SchoenburgPolitical Writer

State Sen. Jim Oberweis, a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the March 18 primary, says he favors a pathway to citizenship for children brought into the United States illegally by their parents.

“In this country, we try not to blame children for acts of their parents,” Oberweis told the editorial board of The State Journal-Register.

He said that for parents who did break the law, “I do not believe that we should provide amnesty.”

But, he added, “We don't want to break up families. My … suggestion is that we look at a non-immigrant visa which would allow them … to be here legally. However, it would not provide them with a path to citizenship.” He also said such adults should pay Social Security and Medicare taxes while working, but they should not automatically get such entitlements.

“That's the cost for breaking the law, in effect,” he said.

Oberweis, of Sugar Grove near Aurora, noted that his position on immigration has evolved since 2004, when he was a candidate for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate and at that time opposed immigration reform being pushed by then-President George W. Bush. As part of that campaign, Oberweis was in a helicopter flying over Soldier Field in Chicago. He said in that ad: “Illegal immigrants are coming here to take American workers' jobs, to drive down wages and to take advantage of government benefits such as free health care.

“How many?” he asked in the ad. “Ten thousand illegal immigrants every day. That's enough to fill Soldier Field every single week.”

Oberweis said Thursday that his point was that laws were not being enforced, and he was talking not just about people sneaking across borders, but estimates, based on a study, of people entering the country through legal checkpoints who should not have been allowed entry.

Oberweis said he thinks most people now agree that border security is important. But he said the TV commercial back in 2004 did “a poor job in expressing those concerns.” He also said Thursday the full Soldier Field example represented an annual number, but the 2004 ads said it was weekly.

(Update: Oberweis said on Friday that he stands by the 70,000 weekly number in the ad. He said there was a misunderstanding during discussion of the Soldier Field ad, and when he talked of “a yearly number,” he meant that the study took an annual look at numbers of people wrongly let through legal points of entry to the United States. He said a conservative estimate, based on the annual figure, was 70,000 per week.)

Oberweis was elected in 2012 to the state Senate, after also being in elections for governor and the U.S. House.

“I made mistakes,” he said. “But I believe I've learned from those mistakes, and I think I'm a better candidate today.”

He said that gained knowledge is an advantage he has over Doug Truax of Downers Grove, the 43-year-old West Point graduate with a business involved in employee benefits, who is also running for the GOP nomination to take on U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in the fall.

“I think Doug is a nice young man,” said Oberweis, 67, whose dairy business has about 1,200 full- and part-time employees. “I think he would be a great candidate for the Illinois House or the Illinois Senate. But this is a very serious race. He does not have the experience. He does not have the financial capability to truly challenge Dick Durbin. I believe I do.”

Dan Curry, spokesman for Truax, responded later that Truax “doesn't need condescending advice on how to be a career politician — they are the problem.” And he said if Oberweis “believes someone who served his country honorably in the military, started a successful business and is an expert on health-care reform is not qualified to serve the people, he hasn't learned any lessons losing five elections in 11 years.”

Oberweis said he never placed lower than second, even in multi-candidate races, and the only general election race he lost was for Congress in 2008, which he called an “Obama landslide year.” He lost that race to U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville.

Oberweis said he backs term limits for state and federal elected officials, and said that Durbin, a Springfield resident who entered the U.S. House in 1983 and is seeking his fourth six-year term in the Senate, is “part of the problem.”

“He has obviously been a major proponent of Obamacare, which I think is failed policy,” Oberweis said. He added that the Affordable Care Act should be repealed and replaced, keeping aspects including coverage of pre-existing conditions and having children up to age 26 covered on their parents' policies. He said the “fundamental flaw” in the law is that it lets the government tell consumers what coverage their policies must include.

Asked about the proposal from the administration of President Barack Obama this week to reduce the size of the Army, Oberweis said that with reducing of troops that have been in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is “potential to provide significant savings in terms of reduced need for troops.”

He also said that to keep Medicare solvent, a “logical step” might be to align the eligibility age for that program for people now younger than 55 upward, over time.

“Let's say, 55 or older, no change, but for every year under 55, maybe it's extended for one month until we get aligned with Social Security, which will at that time be 67 for full benefits,” Oberweis said. “Perhaps it should be 67 for Medicare, or you should have to pay more for your Medicare benefits” until reaching that age.

Oberweis said his successful push to raise the speed limit on rural interstates in Illinois to the current 70 mph from 65 showed he can work in a bipartisan way to pass good legislation.

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